Site of Castle, Bolinarra, Co. Westmeath
On top of a defensive earthwork known as a ringwork in County Westmeath, the remnants of what was once a castle lie hidden beneath dense vegetation and mounds of earth and stone.
Site of Castle, Bolinarra, Co. Westmeath
This site in Bolinarra townland offers commanding views across the surrounding pasture, though visitors today would struggle to make out much of the original structure through the overgrown scrub. The Athlone to Clara railway line passes within ten metres to the northeast, a Victorian addition to a landscape that has seen centuries of change.
Historical maps tell the story of this vanishing monument. The 1837 Ordnance Survey six-inch map clearly depicts a square castle structure with an adjoining oval enclosure to the north, then located in Castletown townland. By the time surveyors returned for the 1910 revision, the castle had disappeared from the map entirely, and administrative boundaries had shifted to place the site within Bolinarra. The nearby Boor River has also been dramatically altered; once meandering in a loop south of the castle, it was later canalised north of the monument, straightening its course through the landscape.
Archaeological surveys from 1973 found no visible surface remains of the castle itself, though irregular piles of earth and stone on the southern half of the ringwork may represent the last physical traces of the medieval structure. The site remains frustratingly difficult to examine properly due to thick vegetation, and even modern aerial photography struggles to penetrate the dense scrub that now claims this once-prominent fortification. What was once a strategic stronghold commanding the local countryside has been quietly reclaimed by nature, leaving only earthworks and historical records to hint at its former significance.